System and Method for Visual Data Reporting

ABSTRACT

A system and method for visualizing data alerts are provided. In particular, the system may be operative to identify alert conditions in complex datasets and trigger alerts based on those conditions; rate the severity of each of the one or more alerts; generate a report for each alert including instructions for resolving each alert; and, at a graphical user interface, display triggered alert groups as a listing or in grouped hierarchies depending on the number of the displayed alerts at a comprehensive alert dashboard. Alerts may be identified algorithmically or by machine learning models, and alert ratings may be visually indicated from the dashboard. Alert groupings may be made based on severity and/or geographic location of alert conditions triggering them. The system may be further operative to identify certain metadata common amongst the triggered alerts, and visually group the displayed alerts at the alert dashboard accordingly.

GOVERNMENT CONTRACT

Not applicable.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

STATEMENT RE. FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH/DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

COPYRIGHT & TRADEMARK NOTICES

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. This patent document may showand/or describe matter which is or may become trade dress of the owner.The copyright and trade dress owner has no objection to the facsimilereproduction by any one of the patent document or the patent disclosure,as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files orrecords, but otherwise reserves all copyrights and trade dress rightswhatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed subject matter relates generally to data reporting, andmore particularly, to system and methods for visually displaying dataalerts and associated reports in a comprehensive dashboard for datasetsthat may be otherwise too numerous to meaningfully review.

BACKGROUND

Advances in computing technology have enabled businesses to gather,classify, and store untold volumes of data that provide historical,current, and predictive views of business operations. This data can becollected from the market and may include, for example, data relating tocustomer engagement with products and advertisements, as well as datacharacterizing the internal operation of a business, such as financialdata. This data can inform or provide insight into demand, assess needsfrom different market segments, and even determine the success andimpact of marketing efforts. As such, this data can be used to support awide range of business decisions, such as operations decisions includingproduct position or pricing, or even broader strategic decisions such asidentification of business priorities and goals. Thus, the regularprovision of this information to decision-makers within an organizationto support them in their work is crucial. In order to do so, businessesimplement extract, transform, and load (ETL) procedures, known to thoseof ordinary skill in the art, in coordination with a data warehouse andthen use one or more reporting tools.

In practice, reports generated by these tools can be used forverification of operational information and requirements, and evencross-checks.

Some systems for compiling and characterizing this data have beenproposed. Such reporting tools have been implemented in some nations byStandard Business Reporting for managing business-to-governmentreporting obligations. For instance, some reporting software has beenconfigured to receive or extract data from databases and, in variousways, reduce and report this often complex and voluminous data as aquantitative measure, such as by a number or statistical figure.Examples of such software available in the marketplace include Tableau®,Microsoft SSRS®, and SAP Business Objects®. These specifically comprisedashboard reporting software configured to visually and ofteninteractively represent certain performance indicators and businessdata. U.S. Pat. No. 8,843,883 to Chowdhary et al. describes one suchdashboard for business performance management.

Thus far, these have suffered from several drawbacks. For instance, suchproposals do not successfully scale with large amounts of data handledby or characterizing large and complex organizations. In many cases,each dashboard, or region of the dashboard, will be dedicated to aspecific data source and even a particular metric from the data source.As the number of data sources and metrics increases, the size and numberof dashboards increases, often to unusable levels. One way of combatingthis issue has been to include user-selected filters to reveal anarrower set of data. Of course, a large or complex organization mayfeasibly generate or receive hundreds, if not many more, unique filterswhich would be needed to provide a comprehensive characterization of thedata. Failure to precisely or accurately utilize these filters torestrict the data poses a risk that significant events, especially thoseapplying to relatively small subsets of data, will be missed when datais aggregated across larger groups.

Although various proposals have been made to solve the problems notedabove, none of those in existence combine the characteristics of thepresent invention. Therefore, there remains a need for a data reportingdashboard that provides access to data alerts and reports from aconsolidated dashboard configured to characterize alerts of interestqualitatively, rather than quantitatively.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for reportingdata alerts via a consolidated dashboard. The method includes processingand, at a graphical user interface, displaying large datasets as readilydecipherable visualizations that enable users to visually identifyinformation of interest subject to the alert. As such, the system isconfigured to qualitatively represent alerts in a comprehensivedashboard.

For purposes of summarizing, certain aspects, advantages, and novelfeatures have been described. It is to be understood that not all suchadvantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particularembodiment. Thus, the disclosed subject matter may be embodied orcarried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage orgroup of advantages without achieving all advantages as may be taught orsuggested.

In general, an exemplary embodiment of the method for alert reportingcomprises identifying alert conditions, identifying an alert, rating thealert, displaying the alert at a graphical user interface, and,responsive to user selection, generating an alert report.

The system and method may be configured to identify alert conditionsand, ultimately, display and generate alert reports for any alertstriggered by the alert conditions applied over a dataset, however it iscontemplated that certain aspects of the system and method may make themparticularly useful for large datasets known to quantify, define, and/orotherwise characterize ongoing performance and activities of a businessor other organization. Thus, it will be understood that the datacomprising the datasets may comprise innumerable facts, figures, andrecords related to, for example only and not limitation, customerengagement, financial health and activity, safety conditions, weatherconditions, demographics, success and failure rates for certainendeavors, and various other key performance indicators, among manyothers. For the avoidance of doubt, application of the system and methodof visual data reporting shall not be limited by industry.

In some embodiments, the system may be configured to execute one or morealgorithms for identifying alert conditions in an alert conditionsidentification module. For instance, the alert conditions identificationmodule may be configured to execute an algorithm for counting certainevents, such that an occurrence above or below a predetermined number ofevents triggers an alert. As another example, the system may beoperative to execute more complex algorithms, such as those operative toperform statistical analysis. In such cases, it may be particularlyuseful to calculate a Z-score, or in other words, identify anydeviations from the mean in standard deviations for some dataset. Ofcourse, other statistical analyses are possible and contemplated by theinvention.

The alert conditions identification module may be configured to executeadditional algorithms and machine learning models in order to triggeralerts according to the alert conditions. Other alert conditions whichmay trigger an alert may comprise the occurrence of certain eventsand/or the occurrence of a certain date or time. In some embodiments,the alert conditions identification module may be further configured toexclude data from being identified under an alert condition. Forinstance, data may be excluded as irrelevant for a particular subset ofthe data. As another example, data may be excluded after an alert istriggered for a predetermined period, allowing rectification of theissue before the alert is triggered again.

Once an alert is triggered, the system may be operative to rate thealert according to its severity. In some embodiments, severity may becharacterized as high, medium, low, or neutral. The severity may furtherbe alert-specific. That is, some alerts may be exclusively rated as anyof high, medium, low, or neutral. As one non-limiting example, thesystem may be configured to exclusively rate alerts related to safetyconditions as “high.” In some embodiments, the alert conditions mayinform the severity of the alert rating. For example, a certain ratingmay be associated with a predetermined deviation from the mean in a dataset, time elapsed since the alert condition was first identified, oreven the number of alert conditions identified within a particular timeframe. As such, it will be understood that any basis for rating an alertby any measure may be predetermined algorithmically or as desired by auser according to their needs and interests with respect to data review.

The alert, along with its rating, may be displayed as a displayed alertfor review at a graphical user interface of a computing device such asany desktop, laptop, or tablet computer, or even a smartphone. In oneembodiment, elements comprising the alert may be surfaced on acomprehensive alert reporting dashboard. In one embodiment, such anembodiment comprising relatively few alerts, the displayed alerts may bepresented in list form together with visual indicators of their rating,the age of the alert, and a text description of the alert. In anotherembodiment, such as an embodiment comprising many alerts, displayedalerts may be grouped according to various metadata common among thedisplayed alerts. As one non-limiting example, displayed alerts may begrouped in hierarchies according to each specific location where theyoriginated, followed by each greater geographic region, and each countryencompassing each specific location. For each hierarchical grouping,alerts may be further visually grouped according to rating.

As noted above, the system may generate visual indicators for eachdisplayed alert rating. In embodiments comprising hierarchicalgroupings, alerts may be further grouped or aggregated under eachhierarchical grouping according to their rating. As an example, visualindicators of displayed alert ratings may be colored balloons or othershapes. That is, in one exemplary embodiment, a red balloon may indicatea “high” severity alert, while orange indicates a “medium” severityalert, and yellow or another color may indicate a “low” severity alert.White, grey, or another color may indicate a “neutral” rating or analert given for informational purposes only. In hierarchical groupings,all high, medium, low, or neutral rated displayed alerts may be groupedtogether, and the number of such displayed alerts per rating may also bevisually indicated.

The system may further generate and display one or more visualindicators to relay additional information characterizing the displayedalerts. For instance, a number corresponding to the number of alerts ofa certain rating type may be displayed in conjunction with the visualindicator associated with such rating type. As another example, a visualindicator may be provided to identify any previously unseen displayedalerts or alerts displayed after a particular time as new alerts.

In some embodiments, the system may be further operative to generate alisting of alerts within the hierarchy responsive to user selections ofelements displayed in each hierarchy. That is, the system may enable auser to, at the display, drill down into varying levels of specificitywithin the hierarchy to ultimately review a particular displayed alert.

In some embodiments, the system may be operative to generate and displaya summary of characteristics comprising the displayed alert, includingany alert conditions that triggered the displayed alert as an alertreport. Broadly, it is contemplated that any text and other contentscomprising the alert report may be sufficiently detailed to provideusers with all information needed to understand and act on the alert.Because of this, it is further contemplated that new alerts may be addedto the dashboard or identified by the system, as desired or needed,while avoiding any need to train or retrain users as to the meaning ofor appropriate response to the alert. Indeed, it will be recognized thatthis avoids certain human errors which may occur as a result ofinfrequent, vague, and/or ambiguous alerts whose responsive actions maybe forgotten over time or executed improperly out of confusion orignorance.

In some embodiments, the system may be configured to generate anddisplay, on the alert dashboard, a graphical user interface elementcomprising such alert report as a tooltip, known to those of ordinaryskill in the art. The alert report may comprise, for example only andnot limitation, a text description of the displayed alert, any timeelapsed since the system triggered the alert, any metadata associatedwith the alert that may be used for filtering, and any alert conditionsidentified by the system that caused it to trigger the alert. Of course,one skilled in the art that the form and content of the alert report mayvary depending on the type of data alerted and even the needs,interests, or preferences of each user of the system. Indeed, in someembodiments, the tooltip may be customizable based on the alert. Assuch, it will be recognized that alerts may comprise text only, asummary of numeric data, or a combination of both, and, further, theparticular form and content of the alert report will not limit theinvention.

In some embodiments, the system may generate a detailed alert report as,for example, a Hypertext Markup Language- or “HTML”-page known to thoseof ordinary skill in the art. The detailed alert report may comprise acomprehensive listing of data and information characterizing the alert.In some embodiments, the comprehensive listing in the report may includedata sources, criteria for triggering the alert, criteria fordetermining the rating assigned to the alert, as well as any requiredcourse of action.

Although it is contemplated that the system may reduce reliance onfilters to identify and review data alert reports in data analysis, thesystem may still comprise user-directed means for generally filteringdata alerts. This may be particularly useful in analyzing particularlylarge and/or complex datasets. Therefore, in some embodiments, thesystem may be configured to receive a user selection that filtersdisplayed alerts according to date and/or time frame, location, line ofbusiness, data source, or other metadata associated with the alertsand/or alert conditions.

The system may also be configured to weight alerts and their underlyingdata in order to produce a summary measure for comparing the performanceof different units comprising the business or organization utilizingembodiments of the system and method for visual data reporting. Theseunits may comprise but are not limited to geographic locations, lines ofbusiness, or departments, for example. Indeed, in some embodiments, thesystem may even be configured to produce multiple summary measures usingdifferent weighting systems for each alert that are based on any aspectof business or organization performance that such alert represents or isintended or believed to represent. As just one non-limiting example, thesystem for visual data reporting may be configured to weigh one alertrelatively heavily on a summary metric representing safety, whileanother alert may not feature in the summary metric representing safetyat all, but may instead weigh relatively heavily on a summary metricrepresenting customer satisfaction. Of course, innumerable other summarymetrics and relative weights are possible, and thus the foregoing willnot limit the invention.

It is contemplated that providing a system and method for alertreporting according to the disclosure and claims provided below may havethe following advantages:

-   -   a) all reported data are accessible from a single, comprehensive        dashboard;    -   b) adding new alerts to the dashboard as needed or desired does        not require additional space on the dashboard, which allows it        to scale and surface a potentially infinite number of alerts;    -   c) time users spend locating and interpreting alerts is reduced;    -   d) identification of the cause and effect of alerts is        simplified;    -   e) standardizing text descriptions and ratings across all alerts        reduces user training efforts;    -   f) the amount of information presented in the comprehensive        dashboard is significantly reduced while maintaining access to        and visibility of relevant alerts;    -   g) individual alert reports are sufficiently detailed to provide        a user with all information they need to both understand and act        on an alert, which avoids any need to continually train or        retrain users how to respond to infrequent alerts or even new        alerts identified by the system and added to the dashboard;    -   h) the elimination of user-implemented filters reduces the        guesswork of making filter selections to access data of        interest; and    -   i) the elimination of user-implemented filters further reduces        the inherent bias associated with filter selection and reveals        data otherwise obscured as residue from filtration.

Thus, it is an object of the invention to provide a system and methodthat generates a comprehensive data reporting dashboard for accessingrelevant alerts in large data sets.

It is another object of the invention to render alerts as rated textdescriptions that are common amongst one another to reduce ambiguity anduncertainty.

It is still another object of the invention to surface data reports onthe same dashboard to increase efficiency and clarity.

It is yet another object of the invention to increase visibility ofrelevant alerts over the noise.

One or more of the above-disclosed embodiments, in addition to certainalternatives, are provided in further detail below with reference to theattached figures. The disclosed subject matter is not, however, limitedto any particular embodiment disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of certain system components in a systemfor visual data reporting in accordance with various embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary embodiment of a method forvisual data reporting;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary embodiment of a computing device comprising agraphical user interface shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 4A-C illustrate exemplary embodiments of a user interface for thesystem and method for visual data reporting.

One embodiment of the invention is implemented as a program product foruse with a computer system. The program(s) of the program productdefines functions of the embodiments (including the methods describedherein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storagemedia. Illustrative computer-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to: (i) non-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memorydevices within a computer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROMdrive) on which information is permanently stored; (ii) writable storagemedia (e.g., floppy disks within a diskette drive or hard-disk drive) onwhich alterable information is stored. Such computer-readable storagemedia, when carrying computer-readable instructions that direct thefunctions of the present invention, are embodiments of the presentinvention. Other media include communications media through whichinformation is conveyed to a computer, such as through a computer ortelephone network, including wireless communications networks. Thelatter embodiment specifically includes transmitting information to/fromthe Internet and other networks. Such communications media, whencarrying computer-readable instructions that direct the functions of thepresent invention, are embodiments of the present invention. Broadly,computer-readable storage media and communications media may be referredto herein as computer-readable media.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, module, object, or sequence of instructions. Thecomputer program of the present invention is typically comprised of amultitude of instructions that will be translated by the native computerinto a machine-readable format and hence executable instructions. Also,programs are comprised of variables and data structures that eitherreside locally to the program or are found in memory or on storagedevices. In addition, various programs described hereinafter may beidentified based upon the application for which they are implemented ina specific embodiment of the invention. However, it should beappreciated that any particular program nomenclature that follows isused merely for convenience, and thus the invention should not belimited to use solely in any specific application identified and/orimplied by such nomenclature.

For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figuresillustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions anddetails of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in thedrawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, thedimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodimentsof the present invention. The same reference numerals in differentfigures denotes the same elements.

The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in thedescription and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishingbetween similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particularsequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the termsso used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such thatthe embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operationin sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.Furthermore, the terms “include,” and “have,” and any variationsthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, system, article, device, or apparatus that comprises alist of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but mayinclude other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process,method, system, article, device, or apparatus

The terms “couple,” “coupled,” “couples,” “coupling,” and the likeshould be broadly understood and refer to connecting two or moreelements or signals, electrically, mechanically, or otherwise. Two ormore electrical elements may be electrically coupled, but notmechanically or otherwise coupled; two or more mechanical elements maybe mechanically coupled, but not electrically or otherwise coupled; twoor more electrical elements may be mechanically coupled, but notelectrically or otherwise coupled. Coupling (whether mechanical,electrical, or otherwise) may be for any length of time, e.g.,permanent, or semi-permanent, or only for an instant.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Having summarized various aspects of the present disclosure, referencewill now be made in detail to that which is illustrated in the drawings.While the disclosure will be described in connection with thesedrawings, there is no intent to limit it to the embodiment orembodiments disclosed herein. Rather, the intent is to cover allalternatives, modifications and equivalents included within the spiritand scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 1 , a system 100 forvisual data reporting comprises at least one data set 102, means foridentifying alert conditions, which may be an alert conditionsidentification module 104, an alert dashboard 106, and for each alerttriggered by the alert conditions identification module 104, a detailalert report 114. It is contemplated that the system 100 may be used inassociation with cloud computing, computing for mobile and wirelessapplications, open source computing, web services, grid or meshcomputing, and any other computing means, platforms, and the like.

In an embodiment, the dataset 102 may comprise any and all informationand data, or some subset of data, relating to a business ororganization. This may be for instance, prefiltered and business oroperation-specific sales and/or revenue information, attendance records,employee records, health and safety records, operational requirements,compliance information, and any other type of data as may be collectedover the course of business or other operation. It will also berecognized that the dataset may be, to some extent, populated by a datasubscriber comprising any suitable software, application programminginterface, or the like, configured to retrieve and/or receive thedataset 102 or various data comprising the dataset 102 from one or moredata sources. In some embodiments, then, the data may compriseunstructured datasets publicly available on the internet such as, forexample only and not limitation, information contained in the news andpublished articles, blogs, forums, other internet resources, and thelike. As such, it may be seen that the particular source of datacomprising the dataset 102 will not limit the invention.

System 100 may further comprise an alert conditions identificationmodule 104 for identifying alerts within the dataset, which itself maycomprise additional software, such as web services, applicationprogramming interfaces, and the like, configured to perform a portion ofthe method discussed herein. Indeed, various embodiments, the system 100for visual data reporting may comprise various software componentsconfigured to aid the alert conditions identification module 104 inexecuting alert-identifying algorithms and building and training machinelearning models as applied to the dataset 102. In some embodiments, thealert conditions identification module 104 may even comprise, build, andmaintain machine learning models for use in the system 100 for visualdata reporting. For instance, the alert conditions identification 104module may be configured to execute an algorithm for counting certainevents, such that an occurrence above or below a predetermined number ofevents triggers an alert. As another example, the alert conditionsidentification module 104 may be operative to execute more complexalgorithms, such as those operative to perform statistical analysis. Insuch cases, it may be particularly useful to calculate a Z-score, or, inother words, identify any deviations from the mean in standarddeviations for some portion of the dataset 102. Of course, otheralgorithms, statistical analyses, and means for identifying alerts bysoftware are possible and contemplated by the invention. This includesalerts drawn from multiple datasets or sources. For instance, it iscontemplated that the alert conditions identification module 104 may beoperative to execute an algorithm operative to trigger an alert whenboth the value of any metrics from one data source exceeds a certainthreshold and any metrics from another data source exceeds the same oranother threshold. As such, the alert conditions identification module104 may be configured and operative to analyze the dataset 102,originating from one or more data sources, in order to identify andultimately trigger alerts in any manner warranted, needed, or desired bythe particular business or operation utilizing the system 100 for visualdata reporting.

The system 100 for visual data reporting will further comprise an alertdashboard 106, which, in general, comprises displayed alerts 108 eachcomprising an alert rating 110 and alert report 112. The system 100 forvisual data reporting may be further configured to generate and displaydetailed alert reports 114 for each alert outside of the alert dashboard106. Such detailed alert report 114 may comprise such information as thesource of data giving rise to the alert, criteria for identifying thealert and its rating, and what, if any, course of action should befollowed as a result of the alert. It is contemplated that providing adetailed alert report 114 in this manner ensures that all users may bereadily and adequately informed as to the meaning and source of an alertwithout any need of prior or otherwise specialized training.

Elements comprising the alert dashboard 106 will be discussed in moredetail below.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary embodiment of a method forvisual data reporting. As shown in FIG. 2 the method includes the stepsof: identifying alert conditions (block 202); triggering an alert (block204); rating the triggered alert (block 206); displaying the alert(block 208); and generating an alert report (block 210). These steps inthe method will be discussed in further detail with respect to theexemplary user interfaces below.

In various embodiments, the system and method for visual data reportingmay include and be performed by, respectively, one or more processorsand/or one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and be capable ofimplementing logic. The processor may be configured to implement variouslogical operations in response to execution of instructions, forexample, instructions stored on a non-transitory, tangible,computer-readable medium, as discussed further herein. The system 100for visual data reporting may comprise any suitable combination ofhardware, software, and/or database components. For example, the systemfor visual data reporting may comprise one or more network environments,servers, computer-based systems, processors, databases, and/or the like.

The system for visual data reporting may also include one or more datacenters, cloud storages, or the like, and may include software, such asapplication programming interfaces, services, or the like, configured toperform various operations discussed herein. In various embodiments, thesystem for visual data reporting may include one or more processorsand/or one or more tangible, non-transitory memories and be capable ofimplementing logic. An exemplary processor may be configured toimplement various logical operations in response to execution ofinstructions, for example, instructions stored on a non-transitory,tangible, computer-readable medium, as discussed further herein.

The system for visual data reporting may comprise at least one computingdevice in the form of a computer or processor, or a set ofcomputers/processors, although other types of computing units or systemsmay be used such as, for example, a server, web server, pooled servers,or the like. In light of the foregoing, embodiments of the method forvisual data reporting may be performed on a computing device 300, suchas the exemplary computing device of FIG. 3 . Computing device 300 maybe a personal, laptop, or tablet computer or even a smartphone but mayalso be embodied in any one of a wide variety of wired and/or wirelesscomputing devices. As shown in FIG. 3 , computing device 300 includes aprocessing device (processor) 302, input/output interfaces 304, adisplay 306, a network interface 310, a memory 312, and operating system314, a mass storage 316 and, with each communicating across a local databus 320. In some embodiments, the computing device 300 may furthercomprise a touchscreen interface 308 and a GPS 318 communicating acrossthe locale data bus 320, however these will not be strictly necessary topractice the invention. Additionally, computing device 300 incorporatesan embodiment of the system for visual data reporting 100, which isdepicted as including alert conditions identification module 322 andalert dashboard 324, though it may also include the raw dataset anddetailed alert reports as discussed above. Further, the location ofinformation 322, 324 may vary.

The processing device 302 may include any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a central processing unit (CPU) or an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the computing device300, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip),a macroprocessor, one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), a plurality of suitably configured digital logic gates, andother electrical configurations comprising discrete elements bothindividually and in various combinations to coordinate the overalloperation of the system.

The memory 312 can include any one of a combination of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random-access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, and SRAM,etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements. The memory typically comprisesnative operating system 314, one or more native applications, emulationsystems, or emulated applications for any of a variety of operatingsystems and/or emulated hardware platforms, emulated operating systems,etc. For example, the applications may include application specificsoftware which may comprise some or all the components of the computingdevice 300. In accordance with such embodiments, the components arestored in memory and executed by the processing device. Note thatalthough depicted separately in FIG. 3 , the system and method forcoordinating visits 100 may be resident in memory such as memory 312.

In embodiments, in which the computing device comprises a touchscreeninterface, touchscreen interface 308 is configured to detect contactwithin the display area of the display 306 and provides suchfunctionality as on-screen buttons, menus, keyboards, etc. that allowsusers to navigate user interfaces by touch. It is contemplated, however,that the computing device 300 may instead, or additionally, beconfigured to receive user display selections and input via keyboards,touchpads, mice, and the like, which may be communicatively linked tothe computing device 300.

For some embodiments, the computing device 300 will comprise GPS 318 orother means to determine the location of the computing device 300. Insome embodiments of the system for visual data reporting, alertconditions may include, for instance, data origination from a locationcorresponding to the computing device location as determined by GPS 318.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the memory 314can, and typically will, comprise other components which have beenomitted for purposes of brevity. Note that in the context of thisdisclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores one or moreprograms for use by or in connection with an instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device. With further reference to FIG. 3 , networkinterface device 310 comprises various components used to transmitand/or receive data over a networked environment such as depicted inFIG. 1 . When such components are embodied as an application, the one ormore components may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium and executed by the processing device.

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate exemplary interactive displays, which may beprovided on the graphical user interface in accordance with oneembodiment of the system and method for visual data reporting. Referringto FIG. 4A, the interface may be configured to display an alertdashboard 400 comprising one or more alerts in various groupings 402. Ingeneral, the interface may comprise any or all of conventional icons andfunctionality 404 such as printing, downloading, saving, refreshing,sending, and searching of, in, and amongst any part of the generatedalert dashboard 400. Additionally, the interface may be user-specificand comprise a user profile 406.

While it is contemplated that the system and method for visual datareporting may reduce and even eliminate user reliance on filters toaccess data alerts of interest or relevance, it may be possible tofilter triggered alerts for display on the alert dashboard 400 to somedegree. In this case, the system is operative to receive selections tofilter the date 408, alert site, lines of business, type of alert, andeven risk 410 of the type of alert. The risk of an alert may beassociated with its rating. Of course, other filters are possible. Theforegoing are offered by way of example only and not limitation.

In this case, the exemplary business or organization generating datasubject to the instant alerts comprises a plurality of resorts as thehighest hierarchical level of a number of alert sites, which are labeledRESORT 1 and RESORT 2. Generic labels have been provided at each level,however, it is contemplated that the system and method of visual datareporting may be executed for datasets collected in any type of businessor organization, as desired. As such, grouping names or labels may begeneric, or business or organization-specific, or some combination ofthe same. Indeed, grouping names or labels may even be user-selectedand/or assigned, determined, and/or assigned by the system foridentifying alerts, or by some other means or system. The following,therefore, is presented for the sake of clarifying the invention and byway of example only and not limitation.

In addition to generally grouping alerts in this manner, it iscontemplated that alerts may be further grouped according to theirrating as assigned by the system. The rating may be assigned accordingto alert conditions or may be user-defined or selected, as discussed inmore detail above. In this case, ratings are visually indicated incolored balloons generated and displayed as selectable elements on thealert dashboard 400 directly adjacent to their associated alert site.

It is notable that alerts need not be assigned to a particular locationon the dashboard in order to practice the invention. Rather, any alertmay appear as a symbol or text description at any relevant location onthe dashboard, or not be shown at all if not currently active. Thespatial layout of the dashboard, then, may be organized as desired bythe business or organization utilizing embodiments of the system andmethod disclosed herein. That is, the location of alerts on thedashboard may be selected or assigned, as desired, based on exemplary,non-limiting criteria such as the subjective or objective importance ofeach alert to the business or organization, and/or regions allocated todifferent segments of the business or organization, such as business ororganization units or sites. Such alerts that are determined to beactive may be collapsed by default, but then the display may expand asneeded to display them when a user clicks on the appropriate location.As such, it will be recognized that the system and method for visualdata reporting are operative to scale to surface a potentially infinitenumber of alerts to the dashboard since the addition of new alerts willnot require increased space on the dashboard to accommodate such newalerts.

Here, the exemplary balloons appear in grey scale, where the blackballoon 412 visually indicates “high” severity alerts, the grey balloons414 and 414′ visually indicates “medium” severity alerts, and the whiteballoons 416 and 416′ visually indicates “neutral” severity or merelyinformational-alerts. However, one of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that any means for visually distinguishing alert ratings ispossible. The alert ratings may be visually distinguished by shape,color, shading, or the like. An additional alert grouping may beprovided for “low” severity alerts. Alerts that are high, medium, or lowin severity may require some attention or action to resolve or address.Merely informational alerts may not require resolution or attention. Ofcourse, the ratings may be characterized, named, or visualized in anyway desired or needed to generally prioritize those alerts requiringattention.

The alert dashboard 400 may further comprise a visual indicator of thenumber of alerts per each rating type, per each alert site. In thiscase, a number is displayed on the face of each balloon as a visualindicator of the number of alerts triggered and rated by type. In FIG.4A, the system has triggered, and therefore displayed alert dashboard400 on the graphical user interface, one (1) medium severity alert andeight (8) informational alerts associated with RESORT 1, and two (2)high severity alerts, four (4) medium severity alerts, and three (3)informational alerts associated with RESORT 2. It should be noted that,in this exemplary embodiment, the system has not triggered any lowseverity alerts for either alert site: RESORT 1 or RESORT 2. As such, noballoons or other visual indicators associated with low severity alertsare shown. In the event that the system later triggers an alert based onidentified alert conditions and further rates such triggered alert as“low” severity, the system may generate and display a visual indicatorassociated with such rating adjacent to its associated alert site. It iscontemplated that displaying graphical user interface elements rating orotherwise characterizing the triggered alerts when relevant in thismanner described will streamline data reports, render data reports moreeasily interpreted, and effectively emphasize those alerts requiringattention.

In some embodiments, even further visual indicators may be provided toidentify newly triggered or as-of-yet unseen alerts. In this exemplaryembodiment, and with particular reference to grey balloon 414, an upwardarrow is provided on the medium severity alert associated with alertsite RESORT 2 between the numbers “4” and “1.” In some embodiments, thisarrangement, and in particular inclusion of an upward arrow, mayvisually demonstrate that of “4” total medium severity alerts associatedwith RESORT 2, “1” of these is newly triggered or as-of-yet unseen bythe user of the system. Of course, other means for visually indicatingwhich, if any, triggered alerts are new or have not been seen arepossible. The alert dashboard 400 may further comprise a key or legendto inform or remind users of the meaning of these and any other visualindicators for ease of use. The foregoing is offered as just onepossible example of the alert dashboard 400 and visual indicators andnot as a limitation on the system and method for visual data reporting.

Continuing to FIG. 4B, this exemplary embodiment of the alert dashboard400 is configured to expand alerts, that is, to reveal subgroupings ofalerts in the exemplary hierarchy, horizontally in response to userselections of alerts. However, alert expansion could occur vertically,and in some embodiments, alerts may even appear in a simple list, ratherthan in an expandable tree or map, without departing from the invention.In FIG. 4B, it may be seen that a first subgrouping of RESORT 2comprises a plurality of specific locations, though generically labeledfor the sake of brevity, as alert sites. Each of the alerts visuallyindicated for the highest order grouping of alerts under RESORT 2 havenow been associated with locations at that resort. That is, uponselection of RESORT 2, the system shows that one each of the two (2)high severity alerts that were triggered for RESORT 2 in FIG. 4A, areassociated with, respectively, LOCATION 5 and LOCATION 7 within theresort in FIG. 4B. It may be seen that remaining alerts from thehigher-level grouping RESORT 2 have been visibly associated with theirrespective locations as well. As an example, it may be seen that the newor as-of-yet unseen medium severity alert referenced in connection withFIG. 4A is associated with subgrouping LOCATION 3 in FIG. 4B.

FIG. 4C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the system and method forvisual data reporting in which a user has drilled down to a terminalsubgrouping ATTRACTION 3 associated with one of the exemplary RESORT 2medium severity alerts. As above, the titles of elements in thissubgrouping are offered for the sake of brevity and may appear by anyappropriate title or in any number as needed. In this case, thesubgrouping is characterized by a plurality of different attractionsassociated with each higher-level location. Of course, the particulartype, character, and nature of each group and subgrouping will not limitthe invention. The subgrouping ATTRACTION has been provided by way ofexample only, and not limitation. In an embodiment, once an alert islocated within the groupings or subgroupings, the system may displaywithin the alert dashboard 400 a summarized alert report 418. In someembodiments, this summarized alert report may comprise the time elapsedsince the alert was triggered and, for instance, the type of reportgenerated in this case, the system has categorized the alert report as asafety report. In some embodiments, the system may further comprise atooltip 420 or other informational graphical user interface element,known to those of ordinary skill of the art, that expands on the summaryof the alert. It is contemplated that the form and content of suchtooltip 420 may be customizable based on the nature of the alert, lineof business, and general needs and interests of the organization subjectto the dataset. The exemplary tooltip 420 displayed in FIG. 4C comprisesinformation about the alert that is potentially relevant to the user,such as the origin of the alert, the risk and effect of the alert, thesource of the alert, the type of alert report, the line of business thealert is associated with, the date of the alert, the name of anyindividuals involved in the alert, and whether any action should betaken as correctives. While the information displayed in the exemplarytooltip 420 is conveniently labeled and summarized, it is contemplatedthat alert reports may simply comprise a block of text explainingpertinent aspects of the associated alert to the user. Of course, it isfurther contemplated that the system may generate an additional,detailed alert report outside of the alert dashboard 400, as discussedabove.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments are merelyexamples of possible implementations. Many variations and modificationsmay be made to the above-described embodiments without departing fromthe principles of the present disclosure. All such modifications andvariations are intended to be included herein within the scope of thisdisclosure and protected by the following claims.

Moreover, embodiments and limitations disclosed herein are not dedicatedto the public under the doctrine of dedication if the embodiments and/orlimitations: (1) are not expressly claimed in the claims; and (2) are orare potentially equivalents of express elements and/or limitations inthe claims under the doctrine of equivalents.

CONCLUSIONS, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE

While certain embodiments of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed, various modifications are contemplated and can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, the particular form and appearance taken by the alert dashboardand graphical user interface may vary according to any number ofaesthetic and functional considerations. Accordingly, it is intendedthat the invention not be limited, except as by the appended claim(s).

The teachings disclosed herein may be applied to other systems, and maynot necessarily be limited to any described herein. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments. All of the above patents and applicationsand other references, including any that may be listed in accompanyingfiling papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of theinvention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems,functions and concepts of the various references described above toprovide yet further embodiments of the invention.

Particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing refined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the system and method for visual data reportingwith which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used inthe following claims should not be constructed to limit the system andmethod for visual data reporting to the specific embodiments disclosedin the specification unless the above description section explicitlydefine such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope encompasses not onlythe disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing orimplementing the disclosed system, method, and apparatus. The abovedescription of embodiments of the system and method for visual datareporting is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the preciseform disclosed above or to a particular field of usage.

While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the method, system, andapparatus are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible for which those skilled in therelevant art will recognize.

While certain aspects of the method and system disclosed are presentedbelow in particular claim forms, various aspects of the method, system,and apparatus are contemplated in any number of claim forms. Thus, theinventor reserves the right to add additional claims after filing theapplication to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects ofthe system and method for visual data reporting.

1. A method for providing a graphical user interface for visualizingdata alerts for large data sets, the method comprising: by a processor:retrieving a dataset comprising one or more data sources; identifyingone or more alert conditions in the dataset; triggering at least onealert corresponding to at least one of the one or more alert conditions;rating the at least one alert; and generating an alert reportcorresponding to each at least one alert; and at a graphical userinterface: displaying, on an alert dashboard, a visual indicatorassociated with each at least one alert rating; and responsive toreceiving an alert selection, displaying, on the alert dashboardconcurrent with the visual indicator of each other at least one alertrating, an alert report corresponding to each at least one alert;wherein the location of each visual indicator on the alert dashboard isdynamic, and wherein each visual indicator on the alert dashboard isconfigured to visually scale according to increasing or decreasingreporting requirements.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, bythe processor, triggering a plurality of alerts corresponding to atleast one of the one or more alert conditions; and grouping, at thegraphical user interface, the plurality of alerts.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the plurality of alerts are grouped according torelative severity characterized by each alert rating.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the plurality of alerts are grouped according to anygeographical location of each of the at least one alert conditionscorresponding to each triggered alert.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe alert report comprises a summary of characteristics comprising thealert, including any alert conditions corresponding to the alert, as atext description of the alert, any time elapsed since the systemtriggered the alert, any metadata associated with the alert, and anyalert conditions identified by the processor that caused the processorto trigger the alert.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert reportcomprises instructions for resolving the alert.
 7. The method of claim1, further comprising, at the graphical user interface, displaying, onthe alert dashboard, the alert report as a tooltip.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the visual indicator comprises a plurality of visuallydistinct icons configured to indicate the severity of an associatedalert.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, by the processor,filtering the data set.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifyingone or more alert conditions comprises executing an algorithm.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more alert conditionscomprises executing at least one machine learning model.
 12. The methodof claim 1, further comprising, on the graphical user interfacedisplaying an alert report responsive to user drilling down.
 13. Asystem for visual data reporting comprising: a processor; and atangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with theprocessor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructionsstored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, causethe processor to perform the method comprising: retrieving a dataset;executing an algorithm to identify one or more alert conditions in thedataset; triggering one or more alerts corresponding to the one or morealert conditions; rating the one or more alerts; and generating an alertreport corresponding to each of the one or more alerts; displaying, at agraphical user interface, a visual indicator associated with each of theone or more alert ratings; and responsive to receiving a selection ofthe one or more alerts by a user, displaying, at a graphical userinterface, the alert report corresponding to each at least one alertconcurrent with displaying any visual indicator associated with each ofthe one or more alert ratings.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein themethod further comprises executing at least one machine learning modelto identify alert conditions in a dataset.
 15. The system of claim 13,wherein the alert report comprises a summary of characteristicscomprising the alert, including any alert conditions corresponding tothe alert, as a text description of the alert, any time elapsed sincethe system triggered the alert, any metadata associated with the alert,and any alert conditions identified by the processor that caused theprocessor to trigger the alert.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein thealert report comprises instructions for resolving the alert.
 17. Thesystem of claim 13, further comprising, by the processor, triggering aplurality of alerts corresponding to at least one of the one or morealert conditions; and grouping, at the graphical user interface, theplurality of alerts.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the pluralityof alerts are grouped according to relative severity characterized byeach alert rating.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality ofalerts are grouped according to any geographical location of each of theat least one alert conditions corresponding to each triggered alert.